The Yellow-headed Blackbird 



No. 20 



Yellow-headed Blackbird 



A. O. U.^No. 497. Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus (Bonaparte). 



Description. — Adult male in breeding plumage: General body color black; also 

 space about bill, including eye, black; remainder of head, neck and throat and breast, 

 broadlyrich yellow (straw-yellow to wax-yellow, or primuline yellow in younger examples; 

 light cadmium, or even cadmium-yellow in older birds); a dab of yellow on the vent, and 

 occasionally touches on the lower tibiae; a large white patch near edge of wing formed 

 by the primary coverts and three or four outermost feathers of the greater coverts, but 

 interrupted by black alula. Bill and feet black. In anything but the highest plumage 

 the yellow of the pileum and sides of neck is mo e or less skirted with black. Adult 

 female: Brownish dusky, lighter, browner, anteriorly; a line ove* eye, and throat, 

 outlining yellow malar patch, whitish; the chest dull yellow mingled with brown; no 

 white on wing. Fall specimens show increase of yellow on chest; line over eye, malar 

 patch, and throat, more or less yellow. Immature males resemble the adult female, 

 but are blacker. In first spring they exhibit intermediary characters, and do not assume 

 full plumage until the second season. Length of adult male about 266.7 ( I0 -5°); wing 

 141 (5.55); tail 102 (4.01): bill 23 (.90); tarsus 36 (1.42). Length of female about 228.6 

 (9.00); wing 114 (4.49); tail 82 (3.19); bill 20 (.78); tarsus 30 (1.18). 



Recognition Marks. — Robin size: black, with yellow foreparts and white 

 wing-patches. Always enough yellow about females or immatures to indicate species. 



Nesting. — Nest: a bulky but tidy basket of dried grasses, reeds, or cattails, 

 lashed to growing ones; lined with coarse, flattened grasses, or variously, and deeply 

 cupped. Eggs: 4, grayish or greenish white as to ground, but often nearly buried by 

 dots and spots of brown (mikado brown, snuff-brown, warm sepia, etc.) ; more rarely 

 wreathed or cloud-capped with brown. Av. size, 25.8 x 17.9 (1.02 x .71). Season: May 

 or June; one brood. 



General Range. — Western North America, breeding from southern British Colum- 

 bia, southern Mackenzie, northern Minnesota, southern Wisconsin, and northern Indiana, 

 south to California and Mexico; wintering from southern California, Arizona, and 

 southwestern Louisiana, to' Michoacan and Puebla, Mexico. Accidental in Middle 

 and Eastern States. 



Distribution in California. — Common breeder in the San Joaquin-Sacramento 

 basin, and throughout the area east of the Sierras and north of the desert; of irregular 

 and local occurrence as a breeder elsewhere, save in the mountains and in the north- 

 western coastal section; Whitewater, May 27, 1913; Goleta Marshes, Nigger Slough, 

 Bear Lake (Morcom). Winters sparingly and irregularly in southern California and on 

 the deserts; of more general distribution during migration — one record for Santa Cruz 

 Island. 



Authorities. — Gambel (Agelaius xanthocephalus), Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 

 ser. 2, vol. i., 1847, p. 48; Ileermann, Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., ser. 2. vol. ii., 1853, 

 p. 268 (nesting); Henshaw, Rept. Orn. Wheeler Surv., 1879, p. 301 (nesting habits); 

 Bendire, Life Hist. N. Amer. Birds, vol. ii., 1895, pp. 446-449, pi. vi., figs. 10-12 (habits, 

 nest and eggs) ; Beal, Bull. Div. Biol. Survey, no. 13, 1900, pp. 30-33 (food). 



124. 



